1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to overvoltage protection devices used in the telephone communications field and, more particularly, to a miniaturized overvoltage back-up protection assembly generally associated with gas tube protection devices.
2. Discussion of the Relevant Art
Numerous mechanical arrangements have been suggested to provide a fail-safe arrestor for electrical circuits which utilize a gas tube to carry an overvoltage including a shorting or ground clip to provide a secondary path should the gas tube vent. Typical of this type of construction is U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,302, issued to Masghati, et al. on Jul. 2, 1991. However, further attempts were made to reduce the size of the overvoltage protection, particularly where the electrodes of the gas filled overvoltage protection device included three terminals all of which include leads thereon extending perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the gas filled device or alternatively, included three electrode rings which in some manner makes contact with the circuitry that was to be protected, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,100, issued to Neuwirth, et al. on Jun. 25, 1991.
The present invention is an improvement over the prior art by providing a miniaturized overvoltage protection device which is affixed on the generally U-shaped mounting bracket and does not require any additional expertise by the technician replacing the overvoltage protection device, since the back-up overvoltage device is part of the mounting bracket and not affixed to the overvoltage protection device itself.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a miniature overvoltage protection apparatus with a back-up air gap assembly affixed to the mounting bracket utilized by the overvoltage protection device.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a reliable overvoltage protection apparatus having a back-up air gap assembly as part of the mounting bracket.
It is still yet another object of the present invention to provide a miniature overvoltage protection apparatus combined with a back-up air gap assembly which does not have to be disturbed when the back-up protection assembly is replaced.
It is still yet another object of the present invention to include a back-up air gap assembly on a mounting clip.